1914 – Ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sank in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; 1,024 people died.

1919 – Einstein's theory of general relativity was tested (and later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington's observation of a total solar eclipse in Principe and by Andrew Crommelin in Sobral, Ceará, Brazil.

1942 – Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra recorded Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", the best-selling Christmas single in history.

1953 – Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on Tenzing Norgay's (adopted) 39th birthday.

1968 - Manchester Utd Football Club won the European Cup becoming the first English club to do so.

1972 – 26 people were killed and dozens more injured when three Japanese gunmen opened fire on crowds at Lod International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel.

1985 – At the European Cup final in Brussels, Belgium, 39 football fans died and hundreds were injured when a dilapidated retaining wall collapsed after Liverpool F.C. fans breached a fence separating them from Juventus F.C. fans.